Immanuel-God With Us

On December 10, 2025 By vickleaIn prayer, Scripture2 Comments

This prayer is part of my devotional today and I really needed it to remind me of God’s constant presence. Life keeps throwing darts at me and so far, I have been able to dodge them, but honestly, I am weary.

Yesterday, I had to return to Ortho Virginia because of a shoulder problem that has been building for the last month. It has gotten so painful that I cannot extend my right arm, either forward or up without excruciating pain. When the doctor checked me yesterday and had me do all kinds of movement that hurt as well as pressing in places that almost caused me to defend myself, he concluded that I have a problem with my rotator cuff. He cannot say definitely that there is a tear because I have not had an MRI yet, but he did say the symptoms point to that as the issue. I received a steroid injection and a referral for physical therapy for the next six weeks.

While I was doing my deep breathing to get through the injection into the bone of my shoulder, I was thinking to myself, “Seriously, God. I have only been out of the boot for a fractured foot for less than a month and now my shoulder is giving me problems. I mean, really. Couldn’t we face this particular battle another time?” God didn’t speak audibly, but He continues to speak to my heart that He is walking this valley with me. He hasn’t gone anywhere, but He has stepped closer to me, to comfort me during the diagnosis, the injection and the feeling of absolute despondency.

God has never walked away from me, as He so lovingly reminded me yesterday and again this morning in this prayer. And since He doesn’t play favorites, He hasn’t walked away from you, either. He is right there, waiting to answer your prayers and to be by your side until whatever the battle that is taking place in your life is over. There will always be a battle to fight, but the good news is, there is always God there to protect you, heal you, comfort you and reassure you of His presence.

When Not If

On September 19, 2023 By vickleaIn Quotation and Citations, Scripture3 Comments

God’s Word is clear that we will have troubles in this life. Jesus even says so:

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.””
‭‭John‬ ‭16‬:‭33‬ ‭NLT‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.16.33.NLT

God does not lie and he says that we will have trials and sorrows. That hardly seems right, does it? We turn our hearts over to God and we still face trials. Pondering on this fact got me to thinking and reading Scriptures about the trials we face.

As a student of languages, I notice things like conjunctions. In this verse, “when” is a conjunction, drawing all of the thoughts of the verse together. I noticed right away that this verse does not use the conjunction “if.” If would be more comforting for me, implying that I may or may not pass through rivers (troubles), and I may or may not walk through fire. But God’s prophet Isaiah used the word when and that says just what it means. We will indeed walk through rivers, be overwhelmed by them (like we’re drowning in a sea of troubles) and we will walk through fire. But in order to get comfort from this verse, one has to read the entire verse carefully. Yes, troubles will come, but God will be with us. The waters will not be able to overwhelm us although they will indeed try to do so. Finally, when we walk through the fire, we won’t be burned by it or consumed within its flames. God’s promise is that even though we will have troubles, He will be with us and take care of us.

Why, then, do we have troubles and trials if God is going to take care of us in them? Why doesn’t He just take them away?

Every time we face a new trial, a new overwhelming problem, if you will, that gives God the opportunity to do a new thing in our lives. His ultimate purpose is to help us to be more like Him. He is the one who shows us the new pathway to take and gives us water to drink in the desert. We may not like where we are or the trials that we face, but we can trust God to bring us through to the other side and that we will learn from them and be more like Him once we overcome. God’s plan is not to make life easy for us, but instead He plans to use life’s lessons to make us more like Him, bearing the fruits of the Spirit and able to climb the next mountain more easily.

I am still studying the Book of Job in my devotional every day and a quotation from Tina Wilson’s book STEP INTO SCRIPTURE resonated with me this morning and made me think deeply about its meaning and its application in my life.

This quotation is from Day 9 of Tina Wilson’s devotional, STEP INTO SCRIPTURE. Think about it. If Job had not been found faithful, Satan may have left him alone and he would not have lost all that he had. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Once again, we have the dilemma of trusting God through the troubles or turning away from Him in bitterness and anger.

God has a plan and it’s a good one. We just have to trust Him to carry us through all of the troubles that it takes to get to the end of His plan for us. Ultimately, His love wins and so do we, if we persevere and don’t give up!

Our Battle and Wars

On September 9, 2022 By vickleaIn Scripture2 Comments

If you watch the nightly news (I don’t) or get news online (sometimes, for me), then you cannot help knowing that the world is in a mess of hurt. There is still a war going on in Europe (remember Ukraine) and there is a lot of unrest in the Middle East, too. Those are the hot spots right now, but there are skirmishes in various locations. But we who know the Lord know that His hand is on the earth and we don’t have to fret about these events. We need to be looking up and waiting for the Savior to appear, knowing that He is indeed coming although we don’t know when.

We fight a daily battle against our enemies, sin and all of the upheaval it creates in the world around us. The Bible gives clean instruction about how we are to go into battle, fully girded and ready. More importantly, He promises to be with us in our battles.

We are not called to shrink back from the enemy but to go boldly into battle. We are at war daily with the enemy of our soul, working at rescuing others from the snare of death and eternity without God.

Our victory is promised if we just hold steadfastly to our faith and keep pressing forward. The enemy thinks that he is pushing us back. After all, the entire world has gone “woke” which basically means that the enemies of God are dismissing the Bible as irrelevant for today. But we who stand on the battle lines for Christ know that the Bible will stand forever and God will never abandon us to fight alone.